It’s sale time at the Brotherhood Op Shops with a massive 50% off. This includes their awesome Hunter Gatherer op shop.

Need to stock up on some winter woollies, add to a dwindling library, sort out clothing for the kids who just keep growing? Why not do it this week. You’ll be saving yourself a bundle and supporting a great charity at the same time.

Check below to make sure your local Brotherhood op shops are involved.

Brotherhood Op Shops

You can visit their stores from 24 – 30 June and save a massive 50% off storewide*.

*sale excludes furniture, white goods and new ensembles and is at selected stores only.

The Important Bits

Now anyone who knows me knows I’m partial to a tea or ten most days so this tea cosy competition hosted by The Mustard Tree caught my eye straight away.

Colder days, cute teacups, pretty teapots, cakes, biscuits…. It’s a no brainer! I dropped them a few questions on what was happening.

1 Can you tell us about the competition, how did it come about?

The Tea Cosy Competition came about after staff had a discussion about creating a fun event that our customers could be involved in. We had seen it done elsewhere. The CWA have a competition for example. We thought we could give it a go and incorporate a Tea Party in our Café as well.

2 How do people enter?

All people need to do to enter is make a tea cosy and donate it to us. It will be put on display and their details taken.

Tea Cosy Competition

3 What happens to the tea cosy’s after the competition?

This tea cosy is then treated as a “donation” to us which we hope to on sell after the event.

4 Is there a prize?

There are prizes for the winners. Local businesses (Yarra Valley Tea Company and Yarra Ranges Herb Farm have kindly offered hampers of goodies for us to award to the winners.

Tea Cosy Competition

5 When is the winner announced?

The winner will be announced on June 19th and we will be having a tea party in our café to celebrate.

6 Will it be an annual event?

We hope to make it an annual event.

Those speedy sewers and quick knitters still have time to enter!

You can find out more by following the official event on their Facebook page here. You can also follow the Mustard Tree op shop on Instagram @themustardtree

Thrifty Upcycled Inspiration

I’ve been a long time stalker of the Mustard Tree Op Shop and I decided to try my luck and ask a few questions about their thrifty upcycled inspiration. Here’s what I found out

1 Is there one person behind the upcycled items we see of a few people at the op shop?
There are a number of people behind the Upcycled items we have at the shop.

Amanda and Dale are responsible for a lot of the crazy things you see there. They make the lamps and lighting and are responsible for most of the displays in the shop. Judy and Leanne are our gardening upcyclers, propagating plants at home. Judy also creates fun sculptures with old golf balls. We have had working bee’s at homes to create things like the tea towel cushions and stools. Christine and Jean helped with these.

The more we do, the more the volunteers want to help and contribute.

2 Why has The Mustard Tree begun this initiative?We have begun this initiative for a number of reasons.

Number one is to reduce the amount of waste we have to dispose of.

We get a lot of donations. We all seem to love vintage items.

Sometimes these donations are visually appealing, but are just a bit broken or incomplete. Sometimes they don’t pass electrical testing. So what can we do? Unfortunately a lot of it has to go to landfill. We recycle unusable clothes as rags. We sell recyclable metals to the scrap dealer.

Luckily we are also able to upcycle some of these items to resell in the shop. So we

We create items that we have proven to sell for higher prices than they would have in their broken state.

We create a visually appealing space for our customer and volunteers.

All these factors combine to ultimately help the community which is the main function of The Mustard Tree.

3 Are they popular with op shoppers? They’re not typical to op shops but we know the Mustard Tree is pretty special.It has proven to be quite a talking point among our customers and volunteers. People seem to appreciate the reason we are doing it and sales have been positive. They are unique pieces often with an “industrial” look. It’s fun to create these items and see them sold to an appreciative buyer.

4 Have you got a favourite upcycle that has been done at the Mustard Tree?There have been a few upcycled items that stand out.

Lamps made from old oil cans proved popular, as did one made from a red Tonka fire engine.

The Necktie light fixtures are always a talking point and the first thing we did was a chandelier made from cutlery. Affectionately known as the “Chandelier of Death” due to the hazards we endured while constructing it!! It hangs in our café.

Lately we have made some cushions and stools from old tea towels. They look great!

the mustard tree wool cacti

5 Do you have any tips for people wanting to upcycle any common household cast offs?My tip for upcycling is to think outside the square. You can make a lampshade out of just about anything.

Vintage items are so fun to work with because they have such a great look and they evoke memories in people when they see them used in a fun and quirky way.

Another tip is to use the internet. There are so many things being done around the world that can give you inspiration. Pinterest is great for browsing.

6 What upcycled items are currently available at The Mustard Tree?Our upcycled items are always changing. Many times we will work on something for a while and it is sold ½ hour after its out for sale.

We generally have a number of lamps and succulents in interesting planters for sale. We currently have tea towel cushions and stools. We also have decorative bunting made from old books.

What we needed to know about The Mustard Tree.

All that we do at The Mustard Tree, including our Upcycled range is to help raise funds so that we can help people in the community.

The Mustard Tree is part of Lilydale Baptist Church and as a church we want to show God’s love as we care and provide for physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the hundreds of people who come into the shop every week.

We want to be seen as more than an op shop. We want to provide a place that people can come and feel welcome. Customers are able to enjoy a coffee and light meal in our café, they are able to purchase clothes, furniture, books, manchester, bric-a-brac, records and so much more at affordable op shop prices. If people need extra help we have Community Care. We run a Foodbank where we provide food parcels to anyone in need. Each month we provide enough food for approx. 3000 meals. We also offer pharmacy assistance and when necessary free clothing and household goods.

the mustard tree upcycled television

Each Tuesday (during school term) we also have a free lunchtime meal. This is known as Community Table and is open to anyone who wants to come and share life over a simple meal.

Now to see their creative genius make sure you follow them on Facebook here and they can be followed here on Instagram @themustardtree

How inspiring are they? I’d love you to share some tips or creative ideas on what you upcycle below.